Reply #6: Here's the thing

[PSPS]

I can't speak for everyone but my reaction to stories like this is that they are too much spin and short on reality.

There has, indeed, been an increase in purchasing and business activity. But look at the situation: Many months of sharp decline followed by the smallest little uptick and here's what you get from the media: HEY! LOOK OVER HERE!!! SHINY OBJECT!! HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN! NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY!! GO OUT AND SPEND!!!11!!1 MARKET RALLY!!!11!!!

In other words, the derision puff pieces like this garner is because, since there are no improvements in the economic fundamentals to justify any real optimism, the media is just operating in its usual whore mode. They'll print anything so long as it sends a feel-good message that encourages people to incur more debt and, thus, please its advertisers.

WHat about the half-trillion dollars of option ARM's that are going into recast over the next two years? They'll mostly turn into foreclosures as they should, but that isn't a "green shoot." Commercial property everywhere is awash in "For Lease" signs. Look at the drastic cutbacks in services across the country, mostly affecting the weakest among us? What if we get saddled with Obama's version of RomneyCare? Gas is over $3 a gallon. Packaged items you buy at the grocery store are the same price but the package is a third smaller. Unemployment is the highest in decades. Real wages haven't increased in decades.

Anyway, you get the picture. While there may be the occasional slight uptick in some indicator, the situation is still horribly dire with every indicator at historic levels of bad, and the future does not look good. These same indicators will continue their downward trend (or be "revised") later. So the media coming out spinning it like "we've turned the corner" is so horribly flawed that it's ridiculous. But if it tricks some people into buying something on their credit card, it has performed its job and pleased an advertiser.